On this blog I'll post a daily forecast/report of the surf/windsurf conditions in Maui.
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Friday, May 09, 2008

the GoPro camera on my longboard

Lately the folks at GoPro sent me a bunch of accessories and mounts for that magic little waterproof camera.

Among those, some little flat mounts with an incredibly adhesive 3M tape. I put it on the front of my 9.0 on a small day (the day before that epic one reported below) to check how tough it was. Unreal. The thing is stuck there and won't come off even if I try to pull it away as strong as I can. It can handle bigger surf for sure.

This day I sat on the shoulder for a few waves and then I took the camera off, put it in my pocket and went on the peak together with the pack of surfers... It was the first time I used the longboard after a while (and you can tell!). In fact, after having started longboard surfing six years ago, I'm now trying to get into shortboarding (great idea at my age!) and I've been mostly riding a 7.2.

Almost ready for a 6.6. Almost... the lack of practice doesn't help. Fortunately, next week is lining up nicely. A typical winter situation is about to happen, with a front coming close enough to the islands to shut down the trade winds. The model 8.5 days out shows a couple of winter caliber storms/fetches that should make next week an awesome one for surfing.We'll see, because... as uncle Pat says, long term estimates are subject to a hell lot of things... low confidence is the latest one.

Ah, the video. Enjoy it... if you can. I promise next one I'll do better than that.

13 comments:

OK...I'm convinced Cammar. Going to ask the girls to get Dad a Go Pro for fathers day. I'll make sure I get some pics and video from the Cape Cod Bay Challenge http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org/ I doubt it will be very exciting but we'll have some laughs to share.

Hi Bob,doesn't matter how the footage comes out... it's a lot of fun just doing it.Where do you plan to put it? If on a helmet or on the front of your board, you should be ok with a helmet hero one.If you would like to have the wrist band AND the helmet mount and board mounts, I think you'll have to go for the digital hero 3 one and a Helmet HERO Expansion Kit.No wait, looks like you can also buy the helmet one and Wrist HERO Expansion Kit.Anyway, check their website and make sure you get what you need...Good luck with the challenge!

Telly, my chances of ever looking like Kelly Slater could be used as the epsilon or the delta in the definition of the limit of a methematical function.Hence, I'd rather keep my mop...

Good camera angle to watch your footwork on the longboard while on the wave. You can almost get a sense what the wave looks like...maybe the folks over at GoPro can send you a cam with a more wide angle lens? Anyway, good angle to see your footwork. Perhaps you can turn it around sometime to see what is in front of you?

Axel and James,I had the camera shooting forward one day for a couple of waves (the footage probably never made it out of the editing)... you mostly see water/sky moving around, sometimes the beach, sometimes a bit of wave. Overall very disappointing.Same happens when windsurfing. I think the most interesting angle is towards the surfer/sailor. To see what he's doing and how the board reacts and how it digs the rails in the water and so on...Unfortunately, in my case, you guys have to watch me! Sure it'd be better if the rider was Kelly Slater or Kevin Pritchard, but that's what you got... :-)Anyway, the Gopro mount has a quick release system that allows turning the camera on the opposite side (180 degrees) in.. two seconds!So, maybe next time I'll catch a couple of waves shooting forward in order to have a few so called "cut shots".

Gopro is also coming up with a wider lens camera. I'll make sure I'll get one...

Nice video. You sure you couldn't have spun the board to get a look at the girl?? We'll always wonder just how gorgeous she was..... In my book any woman any age out on a board of any kind is gorgeous.

Small request for those of us getting hard of hearing. Don't know the softwear you are using to edit, but most allow the sound to be reduced for the splashy/scrapey bits and bumped up for the commentary, which is great BTW! But I'm always having to twist the volume button different ways on the speaker. If its too much hassle though (and I know how very long it takes to edit!!!), I'd rather have more video and put up with the sound! Anyhow, it does showcase just how easy these little cams are to use out of the box! Looking forward to the wide angle lens!

Moreforce4,I'll give you few details:- age 18- perfect body- very dark skin- stunning smileEnough?I actually did lower the volume in the more "scratched" sections of the rides (otherwise now you would really be hard of hearing...).I guess I'll have to lower it even more. I tried to completely mute it... don't like it.

Plenty availability of studios and apts in Paia and the north shore.

About Me

Born and raised in Italy, I became an engineer and worked 11 years in the IT industry. Sick of that, in 2001 I wanted to take a year off and spend it in Maui, the best windsurfing spot in the world. Not only I'm still here (in Maui), but I also got into surfing. And the stoke is flying high. Life is too short to work 8 hours a day...